


voyage to tomorrow

by Azurelitestar



Series: dawn of the sentinels [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Dimilix Week (Fire Emblem), M/M, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Near Death, Non-Linear Narrative, Unreliable Narrator, contains early-game 13 Sentinels spoilers, contains some modern elements and sci-fi elements, no prior knowledge for 13 Sentinels needed, not fully compliant with 13 Sentinels' plot and character relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29609193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azurelitestar/pseuds/Azurelitestar
Summary: "You say that now, Felix Fraldarius, but rest assured – you will come back to me and accept my terms eventually."Felix stopped and looked back to glower into the cat's eyes. They glinted with conceited amusement as they stared back into his."It is only a matter of time."*A Dimilix 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim AU.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Series: dawn of the sentinels [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175381
Kudos: 8
Collections: 2021 Dimilix Week





	voyage to tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I started playing 13 Sentinels sometime mid-Jan and needless to say I got hooked. When I was playing through one of the characters' (Megumi's) stories, the idea suddenly struck me: what if this but Dimilix? And so here we are.
> 
> Some warnings (as tagged):  
> \- This is very non-linear. This was fully intentional on my end to stay true to the style of 13 Sentinels' narrative.  
> \- There is a scene where it's strongly implied that Dimitri died, but he actually didn't, so I didn't tag any character death here.  
> \- Byleth is depicted very differently here, but I promise she doesn't have ill intentions. This is simply how she's coming across to Felix as the story progresses and is one of the reasons for the Unreliable Narrator tag.  
> \- To avoid confusion on the years, the years described here are a reference to the Fodlan timeline (i.e. the Imperial Year). This is more of a easter egg for those who are familiar with 13 Sentinels' plot, because I have a specific reason why I chose those years ;)  
> \- Although I describe this as a 13 Sentinels AU, it is probably more accurate to say it's heavily based on/inspired by it as it's not fully compliant with the 13 Sentinels story. I took a lot of liberties and made quite a fair bit of changes here and there to make this fic more unique rather than completely going according to how 13 Sentinels did. That being said, if you haven't played 13 Sentinels yet, there will definitely be spoilers here, but not beyond the early part of the game.

There was a cat hanging around the rooftop, or so the rumours had gone.

A small, white fluffy cat with a coat of silvery grey fur over its head and back. The very same cat that had recently drawn the attention of the Garreg Mach Academy student populace, that was said to be incredibly elusive and spotted only by a small handful of students, showing up without warning at various spots on campus and then vanishing in a blink of the eye as though it were a spectre haunting the school grounds.

Felix had neither the time nor the mood to be chasing such rumours. Instead, he shoved his way through the chattering students clogging up the hallway until he reached the faculty room and slammed the door to the Professor’s office open unannounced. "He's acting up again," he muttered darkly.

The Professor simply nodded, taking the news in stride as she took a sip of her tea. Her expression was blank and completely unreadable – the same it had always been since Felix had known her. It could be both infuriating and reassuring all at the same time, however strange that sounded, but when it came to matters like this, Felix found his patience ran ever thinner, ever faster.

He marched right in, his angry steps resounding through the office. "Did you hear me? I said he's acting up again."

"I heard you perfectly fine," she replied.

"So do something about it!"

She gave him a look that she always got whenever she was trying to evaluate him. To see right through him, to try to dissect his mind apart. Felix had never said it outright, but it was the kind of look that unsettled him greatly.

Slowly, she set her cup down. "Before I get to that, I need you to close the door first, Felix."

Felix wasted no time in doing as she requested – the sooner he settled this, the better. Then he stomped right back, stopping in front of her desk as he folded his arms.

She gave him another nod, then got up from her seat with a stack of papers in tow, and glanced down at them. "Tell me everything," she said.

So he did. He had no reason not to, anyway, when the Professor – he begrudgingly had to admit – was the only one who could help him with this. As he relayed the information she needed, she began flipping through the papers, looking through them intently, not even showing the barest hint of any emotion no matter what Felix told her, and a white-hot spark of fury coursed through his veins at that.

"I can hardly look at him in the state he's in," he finished, glaring at her. "I hope you're happy, knowing he's like this now."

For the briefest of moments her eyes seemed to widen as she looked up at him, her fingers going still. "Why would you think that?" she asked.

"You told me before," Felix said, carefully, his voice going low and sharp like a knife, "that you had no choice but to start him over. To give him a whole new personality, a whole new life, because it's the only way he'd be able to survive. Right?"

"That's right," she answered, without a beat, "and it still is."

"Well clearly it's not working!" Felix exclaimed, flinging his arms. "Otherwise he wouldn't be like... like this!"

"Felix..."

"So fix it," he said to her, again. "You're— You're practically the only one who really knows how."

The Professor stared at him for a little bit longer. Then she set the papers aside, walked around her desk until she was standing closer to him, and rested her hand against his shoulder.

"We've been through this, Felix," she said, calmly. "We have to give the new personality time to settle, and even I have no idea how long that will take. Such... inconsistencies are bound to happen until then. If I forcefully step in now, we might jeopardise the entire process and lose him altogether. We can’t afford for that to happen." Her grip tightened around his arm. "You agree with me, don’t you?"

Felix sighed, running his hand over his face. The answer didn't need to be said. He was sure the Professor knew what it would be, anyway.

But even still.

"There has to be another way," he tried, for what must've been the umpteenth time.

And each time, the Professor's reply remained firmly the same.

"You know I would've already done that if there was," she reminded him.

And, as it had always gone, there was nothing else that Felix could ever say to that.

~*~

From the day of his birth, Felix had been raised in the bustling port city-town of Fraldarius. It was a place of commerce and manufacture, and one of the greatest contributors to Fódlan's economy, being located by the coasts where the trade ships docked and merchants of all sorts of goods flocked to.

Felix himself had often visited the coasts as a child, when his father had scheduled the time to bring him. As the mayor to the city, his father had many responsibilities to tend to, and among them had included training Felix to be the next in-line to inherit the title. Knowing the port and its daily visitors had merely been a fraction of what Felix had to learn, yet they had been so fundamental to the local economy that Felix had been expected to know them well, and that had meant many countless visits to the coasts throughout his childhood and adolescence.

It had been along these very coasts that Felix had met Dimitri.

It had simply been a routine visit like any other. Quieter than it would've been, if the weather had been clear and they had the warm sun beating down on them. But it had rained that day, a heavy enough downpour that it had deterred the ships from docking and the people from visiting, and as such dampening the mood of all who had gathered there. Felix's own had largely been unaffected, partly because he wasn't usually one who would let things as petty as the weather get to him, and partly because of the company he had by his side at the time.

"Come on Felix, would it kill you to smile? Even for just a teeny-tiny second?"

"Yes," Felix had automatically replied, fighting the urge to smirk when Annette huffed and pouted at him in response.

"No it won't! Nobody dies just from smiling!"

"I'm 'Nobody', then," Felix said.

Annette rolled her eyes but giggled all the same. She was probably the only person around here who could somehow find the humour in Felix's words, even if Felix himself didn't.

"I'm being serious here, you know," she said, glancing towards one of the harbours, and the corners of her lips softened a little. "With the way things have been going in this weather and all, I'm sure a smile from you would put everyone at ease!"

Felix made a non-committal sound, directing his gaze seaward. There was barely any ship in sight, only a blanket of rain and ashen clouds. Dark, wet and murky wherever they went. "Well," he replied, "if you agree to finish that song about the library..."

Annette's response was swift, and it came in the form of a loud _smack_ across his arm. This was not unexpected, but it still very nearly made Felix laugh nonetheless, and when he turned to look her face had already turned a bright shade of cherry red.

"Ow," he said, and then Annette proceeded to blow up her cheeks, becoming something rather akin to what a drunken pufferfish would probably look like.

"Ohhhh why do you keep bringing that up?" she cried. "That was all the way back when we were still in first grade, Felix. First. Grade!"

"Yeah and you've never even finished it since," he pointed out. "Of course I'd still remember."

"Y-you evil no-good un-smiley jerk! Forget it! Right now! This instant!"

Felix made a sound of contemplation at this. "Does the word 'un-smiley' even exist?"

Annette flushed an even brighter shade of red, looking about one step away from smacking Felix across the arm again. "Ohh fine! Be that way! If you keep insisting on that song, I'll... I’ll..." As she trailed off, her eyes gradually widened, appearing to look at something past Felix rather than at him. "Hey... What's that?"

Before Felix could even respond, Annette had already stepped forward, closer towards the edge of the walkway. Perplexed, Felix looked to where Annette was staring, and was presented yet again with only the thick, dull showers of rain in sight, a never-ending stretch of grey and gloom. Against such a backdrop, Annette herself was the one who should be considered the outlier, with her red umbrella and bright orange hair equally matched by her usual sunny disposition, all making her stick out like a shining silver lining along the thundering storm clouds.

"What is it?" Felix asked.

"Over there, don't you see it?" Annette pointed at something invisible in the distance. "There's something... sparkling over there."

"It's too early for stars, Annette," Felix couldn't help but say.

"I don't mean— Look, there it is again!"

Felix focused as hard as he could on the spot that Annette had directed him, and this time he did actually see it: a glistening blue spark, like a flash of condensed lightning, vanishing as soon as it had appeared. Then again, and again, growing in size each time it manifested, as though it were coming closer and closer towards them.

It wasn't until he felt a distinct wave of heat – implausible in such weather – and the steady build-up of sheer pressure in the air that he realised that it was, indeed, approaching them.

"Annette get back!"

"Wha—"

Just as Felix grabbed Annette's wrist, the lightning crashed.

It struck the ocean, first. Then, the crushing pressure and force that came along with its violent descent shoved the waves onto the coasts, sending them far enough that even the edges managed to brush across the walkway, splashing onto Felix and Annette like a second rain they were not prepared for. Annette's shriek, muffled it might be in the erupting chaos, still carried itself to Felix's ears, and his grip on her hand tightened as the ground trembled, tripping them over.

A whirring groan. A ripple of static.

Then – silence.

Total silence and stillness.

Slowly, Felix opened his eyes that he hadn't even realised had been closed. He looked to his right, first, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found Annette. Their umbrellas had been blown away in the mayhem, leaving them soaked in the rain and ocean water, but other than that and the streaks of dirt from falling to the ground, they were still largely unscathed.

It took a few more seconds before Annette, too, opened her eyes, blinking rapidly as she tried to take stock of the situation, and a few seconds more before she met Felix's own. "F—Felix?"

Felix gave her a curt nod, then pulled her and himself up as he tried to stand. She wobbled, slightly, and he kept his grip firm. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," she replied, trying to keep her voice steady. "What... What was that all about?" Then, again, after bouncing back and regaining her bearings, she looked back at the coasts before Felix did, and her jaw dropped. "Oh wow, what's... what's _that_ supposed to be?"

Slowly, Felix let go of her wrist, then turned to look in the direction of where the unknown force had landed. Now, instead of the empty canvas of nothing but grey rain and sea, there stood what looked to be a colossal piece of heavy machinery, easily taller than any of the largest factories and corporate buildings his father had ever brought him to, and more sophisticated and complex in every inch of its design than any mechanical structure Felix had ever laid his eyes upon. Upon closer scrutiny, it almost looked as though it had arms of its own – large and blocky, but not entirely unwieldy – and even what looked like fingers clenched into mechanical fists, sunken in the sand. And right in the heart of this massive machinery was what appeared to be a reflective panel of sorts, like the lens of a camera, emanating a blurry yet brilliant ray of blue light that seemed to dance within the lens like a firefly in the summer nights.

Annette gasped. Felix almost jumped. "Oh no! The merchants! A—and all those people working in the port! Did they get out okay?"

Felix bit his lip as he glanced towards the structure and the state that the coast had been in. There was nobody in sight, but then again there hadn't been any at all from the start so that aspect was easy to answer. But Felix couldn't say the same about the ships that had been docked earlier in the day and the people who had gathered elsewhere nearby, as he hadn't been to those places yet, and so he had no real way of properly addressing Annette's concerns. So when Annette tugged at his sleeve and implored him to go have a look, there had been no other option but to agree. One of them could always just dial the cops to come and take care of the suspicious structure as they made their way, after all.

But, just as they were about to take their leave, another flash of light stopped them in their tracks, taking on the form of a holographic sphere with ripples of electrical sparks that Annette would've most likely stumbled her way into if Felix hadn't pulled her back in time.

Felix swore under his breath. "Dammit, what now—"

The sphere disintegrated in a shower of glimmering dust with a disquiet hum. Then there fell an unknown blond-haired figure who immediately crumpled to their knees and bent over the ground, breathing so heavily that Felix could hear it from where he had been standing. Annette let out a surprised squeak at the sight while Felix stepped in front of her, glaring daggers at the stranger who had just appeared out from nowhere before their eyes.

"You," Felix growled. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

The stranger did not reply. Only kept kneeling on the ground, his head bent low, heaving breath after breath.

Felix gritted his teeth. "Answer the damn question."

And again, the stranger did not.

"Um, hey," Annette spoke, "are... are you okay? Should we call for help?"

"Annette what the hell are you doing? We don't even know who this is."

"I mean, just look at him, Felix." Her face fell. "It doesn't even look like he's in the state to say anything."

"He could just be pretending," Felix pointed out.

"Maybe, but..." Her brows furrowed further as she considered it some more. "I... I think I'm just going to call in an ambulance, just to be safe. We need to give the police a call too, anyway, right?"

"...Just the cops will do," Felix replied, not taking his eyes off the figure. "My old man's gonna end up getting involved in this one way or the other."

Annette didn't look like she fully agreed with this, but eventually she nodded. "Right... Rodrigue used to be a medical doctor before becoming mayor, didn't he." She fished her phone out of her bag. "I'm going to make the call, then."

Felix tilted his head in way of a nod, and she took a few steps back and started dialling. At about the same time, the shady guy who dropped out of thin air slowly looked up at Felix, his sky blue eyes blown wide in shock.

"Wait... Did she just say, 'Rodrigue'?" The stranger paused to take another breath and almost choked on it in his hurry to say more. "As in, Rodrigue Fraldarius?"

Felix scowled at him. Of all the things to respond to, it had to be something about his father. Not that it should surprise Felix anymore by this point, given how wide his family name had spread due in part to his father's contributions to the whole of Fódlan.

A family name that Felix had been expected to live up to.

"What do you know about him?" Felix asked back.

The stranger didn't reply to this. Only blinked. And blinked. Held onto his breath, and grew paler by the second as though he still had more colour to lose.

"When... when exactly are we?"

"'When'?" What an odd question. Did this guy knock himself on the head when he fell from the sky? "It's the thirty-first of July—"

"No," the blond figure cut him off, rasping. "I meant... I meant the year."

Felix narrowed his eyes. "If you're trying to be funny—"

"Does it look like I'm joking?" the stranger said sharply, glaring back at Felix.

For a moment, Felix had been taken aback, but he swiftly recovered and met the stranger's fierce gaze with his own, and for what felt like eternity they remained just like that, engulfed in tense, stifling silence as they glowered each other down.

Until finally, the blond adolescent sighed and shook his head, and the heaviness that hung in the air just moments prior all drained away. "Please," he said. "I must know."

Felix clicked his tongue. "Fine," he replied. "I'm only telling you this once, so get it through your head and remember it well, because I'm _not_ repeating myself." He crossed his arms. "It's the year 1265."

"12...65...?" the stranger started mumbling under his breath. "It's the year 1265...?"

"That's what I just said," Felix said, growing impatient. Annette sounded like she was just about done with giving the police all the details they needed over the call, herself. "So now that I've finally humoured you, you'd better start paying back the favour by answering _my_ questions. Got that?"

"No..." the blond only kept murmuring, mostly to himself. "If it's 1265 and Rodrigue is here... then that means... No..."

"What are you blathering about?"

"Ugh... Gah..." The still unidentified stranger held onto his head with one hand, and kept supporting himself with the other. "I'm... Dimitri Blaiddyd... A Sentinel pilot, from a ruined future. My duty... My duty is to fight the Demonic Beasts that seek to destroy our world. And now, this timeline... They’re coming…"

Before Felix could ask any further, the blond who called himself Dimitri passed out.

~*~

When Felix decided to enrol in the academy after the incident with Dimitri, the Professor had made the proper arrangements to ensure that he was placed in a class anywhere but Dimitri’s own.

"It's for his own good," she had said. Felix didn't need to hear it from her twice, but as though she took pleasure in rubbing more salt into the wound she added, "You can't go anywhere near him right now. You understand, don't you?"

This was something Felix had quickly learnt, over his interactions with the woman and his past experiences, to really mean 'It is for your own good as much as his, and you _will_ regret this if you elect to ignore me' and so Felix had grumbled out some form of response and left it at that. However, as the days passed and with no other concrete goal to work towards with the time that he had when he was not due for another visit to the hangar in Zoltan Industries or the underground saucer, he ended up spending his after-school hours simply standing by various locations around the school.

Sometimes, it was the hallway. Sometimes, it was the gym. And other times, it was the library, the rooftop, the courtyard outside the classrooms.

The same places Dimitri himself had frequented.

Naturally, it did not go entirely unnoticed.

"Why do you always go to wherever His Highness is headed whenever school's out?" Sylvain asked as he stuffed himself on his food.

Felix froze in place for that moment, as he tried to both understand what Sylvain had just said as well as remember Dimitri's exceedingly cheesy high school nickname to realise who Sylvain had been referring to. "I— No I don't," he eventually retorted.

"Right," said Sylvain, swallowing, "so you just magically show up at all the places he goes to. All at about the same time everyday. Just all a plain ol' coincidence."

"That's..." Felix trailed off, slowly and mortifyingly realising that he had no excuse for himself, for he honestly hadn't been expecting to have the need for one. But he couldn't very well tell Sylvain the truth, either. So all he could do was to get back to his meal, turning his attention towards his food as he tried to avert the redhead's gaze, which only seemed to be growing more and more intent by the second. "That's just – ridiculous."

Sylvain let out a laugh. "Right, right, what was I thinking? People can't just show up wherever they want, after all. It's not as though teleportation has been made possible." His smile widened. "The only other alternative I can think of is that you're a closet fan for the Prince himself and have been keeping tabs on him. Buuut you don't strike me as a stalker type, either, so..."

"Call me a stalker again and I'll run this through your face."

Sylvain raised his arms in surrender, still laughing jovially. "Relax, Felix, you know I was just joking."

Felix gave him a "Hmph", then turned the tip of the fork back to his food and stabbed into it instead.

Eventually, Sylvain's smile faded as he rested his chin on his hand, contemplating. "But seriously, man," he said, "you've been showing up wherever the Prince goes to, recently. And I'm not the only one who noticed, you know. Word's been getting around no thanks to His Highness' fan club. Like, just this morning, I overheard the girls in our class talking about seeing you at some far-off corner at the gym yesterday doing nothing but just staring at him."

Felix inwardly cursed at himself, almost dropping his utensils entirely as something swirled in the depths of his gut, robbing him of his appetite entirely. He didn't quite know what to make of what Sylvain had told him, and under normal circumstances he wouldn't have cared. But such a thing as normalcy now held an entirely different meaning to him altogether.

Felix sighed and shook his head. "Just ignore them," he grumbled. "They're speaking nonsense."

"...Okay, this is the part where I'm supposed to give you the benefit of doubt card, but I can't bring myself to do it. When I said 'word's been getting around', Fe, I really meant that word's been _getting around_. Lotsa people have their eyes on the Prince too and you're not exactly subtle, y'know."

Felix scowled. The unidentified sensation still crawling about his gut turned dark and thunderous, slithering up his throat and leaving a sickening taste in his mouth. "What do you mean a lot of people have their eyes on him."

Sylvain looked momentarily confused. "Uh, exactly what I said? I mean, he's a good catch among the ladies and all—"

"Not— Not that," Felix said, his throat tightening. "Other than those – delusional girls."

"Sooo… not including yourself either?"

"Sylvain," Felix seethed, "I'm being serious."

"Well, so am I," Sylvain retorted, bewilderment clear in his voice. "Okay, I admit that came out rather poorly, but you're not exactly making it any easier for me to understand what's going on here. What, are you worried about kidnappers or something along those lines? I mean, sure, he’s associated with the Riegans and all and everybody’s taken to calling him the Prince of Garreg Mach but he's not an actual prince, though?"

"Of course I know that," Felix growled in response.

"So what is it? You know him from before this?"

 _I used to_ , Felix thought bitterly, pressing his head against his hand. He did not want to think of this. Not now.

"No wait— Don't tell me it's something corny like, the two of you meeting way back when you were kids then one of you moved away and now he doesn't recognise you?"

"Just drop it, okay?" Felix snapped.

Sylvain flinched. "Felix—"

"I'm done here." Felix raised from his seat and grabbed his tray, his food still left largely untouched. Then he left without another word.

Ever since then, he and Sylvain hadn't really talked to each other much. Had their lunches separate, came to class on their own separate ways, kept their interactions to a minimum – only briefly acknowledging the other upon passing him by. An outcome that Felix hadn't intended, but told himself not to mind all too much. The further Sylvain could be kept away from the whole business with Dimitri and the Sentinels, the better, after all. Especially when Sylvain had no involvement whatsoever in the whole thing in the first place.

Sylvain had tried, of course, but Felix wouldn't give him the chance to, and subsequently Sylvain had gotten the hint and left him mostly to his own devices. Still watching, nonetheless, from the corner of his eyes, Felix could sense. Felix tried to ignore it.

He continued about his habit of visiting the places Dimitri had, keeping an eye from a distance as he had done before. There were a few stares here and there that he now began to notice, but he paid them no heed. Let them talk, for all he cared – it would've changed absolutely nothing, after all. Nothing about the kaiju nor the Sentinels. Nothing about Dimitri's lost memories and identity.

And certainly nothing about the Professor finding out and dealing with it in her own way.

"She's not exactly a fan of what you're trying to do, if you care to know," said the messenger that the Professor had so conveniently sent in his way.

"I don't," Felix replied bluntly. He had expected her to be displeased and decided to carry on with it anyway, which he thought should've been enough of an answer by itself. But apparently not, it seemed.

That earned him an amused chuckle. "Yeah, she thought you might say that."

"And why didn’t she even bother to come here to tell me that in person?"

Claude gave him a shrug. "Beats me. If I had to guess, she probably thinks it's futile for her to try to convince you by this point, so she's trying a different method."

Felix narrowed his eyes. "What makes you think I'll listen to you?"

"You misunderstand, my prickly little friend," Claude said, winking. "I'm not here to tell you to give up. No, I'm here to help make things a little easier for you."

"Easier in what way?"

"To see if the Dimitri you know is still in there somewhere."

Felix stared. He could hardly believe what he had just heard. And from Claude Riegan, of all people. Claude, who was supposed to be the Professor's closest aide. Who knew just as much about Dimitri's condition as the Professor herself.

"Isn't he supposed to be gone," Felix said, the words leaving a burning, acrid taste in his mouth. "That's what the Professor has been telling me this entire time, right."

"Bzzt — Wrong," Claude told him. "Teach is the one who's convinced he is. Me? I'm not about to cross out the possibility just yet." He tilted his head towards Felix. "And _you_ don't seem to completely believe Teach's words, either, from the looks of it."

Felix folded his arms. "Aren't you supposed to be on the Professor's side?"

"Trust me, I'm not one to take sides. I'm only working with Teach for the sake of the greater good, not because I'm a mindless lackey who just does whatever he's told. We actually do have our disagreements on certain things, but we just iron it out as we go along. I don't fully agree with how she's handling Dimitri's situation, for instance, and I think she's aware of it."

Felix thoroughly considered Claude's words. "...She's trying to prove us both wrong," he concluded. _She wants us both to regret this,_ what he really intended to say.

"Exactly," Claude said.

Fine, then. If that was the hand the Professor decided to deal them with, then Felix would gladly take her up on that challenge. It would be infinitely many times better than just standing around and doing nothing, at least.

"Alright," Felix agreed. "So how do you suggest going about doing this?"

"Just leave the arrangements to me. I already have it all planned out," Claude replied, grinning. "But first, I do have a few conditions I need you to go along with before I can set the whole thing going. Gotta test the extent of your resolve and all, y'know."

Felix rolled his eyes. He would not be faltered, no matter what Claude had up his sleeves, but it would be to his grave disadvantage if he didn't at least hear Claude out. "Get on with it, then."

"First, I need you to go and make up with your friends," Claude said, donning a more serious expression. "I know what's happened with Dimitri hasn't been easy on you, but it doesn't do you any good either if it's been affecting your relationships with the others."

"...Why would you even care about that?" Felix grumbled.

"Because I heard Annette singing a sad song the other day, and it makes _me_ all dark and gloomy just hearing it. Three words: highly not recommended."

Felix sighed. Right. Annette. He had meant to apologise to her, because she genuinely didn't deserve being on the receiving end of how he had behaved the last time they had spoken, but he still had no idea where to even begin. He thought, since Annette now had other friends after arriving in 1225, she would be fine without him, but it seemed that silly girl still thought of something about their friendship.

And now – there was also Sylvain to consider. Who, just like Annette, had only been concerned about Felix and trying to show it the only way he knew how. Except Sylvain had virtually little to no information to go off on, being a native of the current timeline they were in. A timeline that had yet to witness the destruction that the Demonic Beasts had wrought.

Felix didn't want either of them to get involved. But at the same time, he didn't want to lose what he had with them, either.

He already lost more than he could deal with, as it was.

"...Fine," Felix grunted. "I'll try."

"Eh." A shrug. "Good enough, I guess."

"Your next condition?"

"Right." Claude cleared his throat. "Don't strangle me for laying this out, though. I know you're tired of hearing this, but it's important that we're starting off on the same page, here."

"Just get on with it."

"Whatever happens," Claude said, "you have to remember he's not the Dimitri you know anymore. He might still be a Blaiddyd, but that family name means nothing to him, now. Nothing save for the ties it has with the Riegans, and he’s been taught to believe he was raised that way. It's not fair to either of you if you start treating him as the person he used to be."

Claude was right about him being sick of being told that, at the very least. "I know that," Felix said, scathingly.

"Yeah, I know you do," Claude agreed. "But knowing and acting that you do are different things altogether. We can't afford to slip up and have a repeat of what happened last time, Felix."

Felix felt his chest tighten. "I know," he muttered, again. 

"I sure hope you do," Claude replied. "For all of our sakes, if not for his."

~*~

The city ended up in shambles. Devastated beyond repair. Debris and corpses of the kaiju strewn all over. The coastline, in complete ruins. The ocean water, reduced to black sludge. The thick smoke of destruction and the toxins spewed from the remains of the fallen beasts loomed over the area.

In the aftermath of the chaos, the Sentinel had fallen to the ground, its arm and leg nowhere in sight. In the aftermath of the chaos, Felix had found him.

"Oh," he gasped. "It's... so warm... Felix... Is that...?"

"...Yeah, Dimitri," Felix replied. He cradled Dimitri's head into his lap, holding him as carefully as he could, and it took all of his might and will to stop his fingers from shaking. "It's me."

Dimitri's lips twitched as it tried to form a smile. His eyes had completely glazed over, with scarcely any life left in them. "I... see." He coughed. "I'm... I'm so glad. I managed... to protect..."

Felix let out a shattered sound at that. "You moron," he croaked, trying to keep it down his throat. "Why? Why did you do it? You knew... You knew this was going to happen. And yet, you...!"

Dimitri tried to breathe. He ended up choking, wheezing and wincing in pain. "You know... why..."

Felix shook his head. "No," he said, "I don’t."

"Felix... "

"I don't want to hear it," Felix snapped.

"Felix… I…"

"No," Felix yelled. "I don't want to—"

"I'm glad... I..."

In the aftermath of the chaos, Felix had lost everything.

~*~

Felix had known, of course.

From the very beginning, he had known.

That his meeting with Dimitri had merely been a stroke of luck. Nothing more than a simple coincidence, the result of multiple factors happening all at once that conglomerated into such an outcome.

That it could've just as easily been anyone else but him at the coasts that day whom Dimitri could've appeared to. That it could've just as easily been anywhere else that the Sentinel could've shifted Dimitri to. That it could've all ended with Felix simply leaving Dimitri to his father and ignoring his existence for the rest of Felix's life instead of what they had now. That it could've even been Annette in Felix's place instead – bright and cheery Annette who could lift anyone's spirits up and find the ray of hope even in the darkest of times.

That he and Dimitri had simply been living on borrowed time, all this while. An illusion that was meant to be broken, a dream that they were meant to wake up from.

It was Dimitri who had been the one to remind Felix of that fact.

The streets had been empty that very day. Void of life and people, after the alarm had sounded and an evacuation had been ordered. The sky had turned a vicious shade of red as the sun descended below the horizon, slowly bleeding out in its final moments in a desperate struggle against the claws of fate.

"They're here, Felix," Dimitri had said. "Just as I said they would be."

Felix could not find it within himself to reply to that. Not even the ability to breathe – for his throat had wound so tight he wondered, distantly, if this was how he was meant to die.

"A group of them was just spotted not too long ago, crashing through the port." Dimitri's fingers curled into fists by his side. Felix couldn't help but notice the way they had trembled. "I managed to put an end to them before they could do further damage, but... I fear this is only just the beginning. The first in an endless swarm of waves. Like what had happened in my time."

Dimitri's time. The year 1305. In utter shambles and ruins, razed to the ground in the destruction and war against the Demonic Beasts that had invaded the Fódlan of that time.

There had been no other known survivors. Only Dimitri. His family, his friends, his home – all gone. And the status of his comrades – the other Sentinel pilots who had fought alongside him and the Professor who had led them – was still currently unknown.

And now those kaiju, those Demonic Beasts, have crawled their way to Felix's time, seeking to do the very same. With only Dimitri here who had any real power to stop them.

"That's why... I just knew I had to come," Dimitri said, carefully yet anxiously, with weight in each and every word, the depth of an emotion that Felix had only recently come to learn to comprehend so deeply infused in every word that Dimitri spoke. "To see you, Felix. For one last time."

Felix had known. He had known. From the moment Dimitri had told him everything about the future, Felix had known.

Even with all the work his father had done on the underground saucer in collaboration with Zoltan Industries in an attempt to better understand the system that the Sentinels had been linked to and the reason behind the kaiju's relentless attacks on it, some part of Felix had told himself to be prepared, regardless, for the possibility that their efforts would all be for naught in the end. Steeled himself, with each passing day that he could spend with Dimitri, for the time when something like this would happen.

So why was it so difficult for him now? Why did Dimitri's words still feel like his heart had been ripped raw from his chest, a well-aimed blade that had just run him through?

"One... last time?" Felix finally spoke.

Dimitri's expression hardened. He said nothing more. Even then, Felix understood. He already had, from the beginning.

He thought he had.

"No," Felix objected. "Dimitri. You can't."

"I have to," Dimitri replied.

"The Sentinel," Felix said. "You know the state that thing is in." _The state that_ you're _in._ "If you use it any more than you already have, you'll—"

"Even still, I have to."

"You. _Can't._ " Felix stepped closer. "I won't let you."

Dimitri looked pained as he shook his head and moved away. "Be reasonable, Felix. We've been through this."

They had. They did. That didn't mean it made any of this any easier.

"I'm the only one left who can pilot a Sentinel," Dimitri said, quietly. "It can only be me."

"Dimitri—"

The air gave a forceful tremble as a shockwave spread across the area. Dimitri and Felix both looked to the sky, now filled with smoke and soot where the clouds had been, and found the culprit making its descent from the unseen beyond: a streak of blazing fire, like a meteor falling from the heavens, roaring like thunder as it hungrily paved its way towards its destination. Then, another fell behind it – bursting through the ash, forming a ring of fire that torched the sky.

The second wave, Felix realised with dread.

"No," Dimitri said, his voice hoarse. "Merely a small part of the first."

 _‘This is only just the beginning’,_ Dimitri's words echoed in his mind, and Felix felt his heart plummet.

"I must go," Dimitri murmured. He raised his hand.

"No," Felix protested, sounding weak and pathetic even to himself.

It should've been so simple, part of him had thought. Just reach out and grab Dimitri's hand. Hold him down, tie his arms behind his back. Whatever it would take to stop Dimitri from getting to the activation key that would summon the Sentinel.

But Felix hadn't. He couldn't.

He didn't know why.

(He had known why.)

"Di—"

"I'm sorry, Felix." He touched the bridge of his nose and swiped across his right eye.

The Sentinel appeared in a bright spark of light – the very same that had brought Dimitri to coasts that day – sending a tremor as it came crashing on the surface. The familiar blue holographic sphere started surrounding Dimitri like a barrier, a mist clouding every inch of his being, obscuring him.

"I don't want your apologies," Felix exclaimed, unable to help himself as Dimitri faded more and more into the light. "Do you hear me, Dimitri? I don't want your fucking apology, I want—"

The light vanished. And with it, so did Dimitri.

As things would eventually turn out, that would not be the last time Felix saw Dimitri.

But it would be the last that his Dimitri saw of him.

~*~

The true root of the problem had been this:

From the start, they had never wanted Dimitri.

No, what they wanted was the Dimitri who could pilot a Sentinel, which could only be operated by one with a Crest that was compatible with it. The Dimitri who could fight and defend Fódlan from the invasion of the kaiju.

The Sentinels were their only means of defence against the Demonic Beasts. Created in the far-off future with the advanced technology of that time, in order to fight against the threat that had advanced upon and ruined the Fódlan of that era – now brought to this timeline through their links to the underground saucer to stop the kaiju from devouring further into the past. But there were only a limited number of Sentinels that had been successfully engineered, and not just anybody could operate them. For it was the Sentinels who, in a way, chose their pilots, by virtue of mutual compatibility that existed in the form of Crests, a natural link between the pilot and the underground gate, and those with such compatibility were few and far between.

Dimitri had been one of them. Discovered to have a Crest that made him compatible with the Areadbhar model Sentinel, and was highly valued and fielded on the frontlines as a result. But what made him unique amongst even the sparse few known Sentinel pilots had been the fact that, to this day, he was the only one who had managed the feat of fighting in the Sentinel for well over two hours and still remained alive at the end of it all.

But – he would not remember accomplishing any of that.

Piloting a Sentinel did not come without a cost – as a piece of heavily armed machinery whose operation relied on maintaining a stable connection to the pilot’s neural network, simply activating the Sentinel and entering its cockpit could mean inflicting damage directly to the brain. As such, being inside the Sentinel for even more than just a few minutes could trigger immense headaches at best and potentially be fatal at worst, and even if the pilot still managed to live it could lead to the loss of memories and turn them into an empty shell of themselves. And Dimitri had been one of the latter.

"There was nothing else we could do," the Professor had explained, when Felix had been brought to this timeline and found Dimitri inexplicably alive, "We tried, but… we couldn’t restore any of his old memories. The only option we had left had been to give him a new set of memories. A new personality. A fresh start on life. I'm really sorry, Felix, but… this was the only way."

"That's what they want you to believe, at least," the creature before Felix said to him.

Felix folded his arms as he glared down at it. "And why should I believe you?" he asked. "You're a cat."

A small, white cat with a coat of silvery grey fur over its head and back. The mysterious, fluffy school cat that had nearly the entire Garreg Mach Academy student populace crazed over.

A cat that, beyond all realms of possibility and reason, could speak the human language.

"As I told you before, I am not a cat," the feline creature that was clearly, in every single visible angle, a cat insisted.

Felix rolled his eyes. "Yes, you're a relic of an ancient civilisation and obviously not a talking cat."

"I'm from a world that was _destroyed_ by a relic of an ancient civilisation," the cat corrected dryly, drawing its words out as though insulting Felix’s level of comprehension, "though I suppose... Okay, never mind, that's not important. The point is, this cursed relic ruined my world and is about to do the same to yours. So if you don't want that to happen, you would do well to think about cooperating with me."

"I don't have a reason to trust you," Felix replied.

The cat looked at him, for a moment. Then it sighed. "I suppose not," it seemed to concede. "Well then, how about this: if you agree to help me... then I will help you bring your Dimitri back. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Felix scowled, still glaring down at it. The cat proceeded to blithely lick its paw.

"I know how you've been fed all the lies about how there isn't any way to save him." It started scratching its ear. "But I can do what that Professor can't, or rather what she’s unwilling to do. I might not seem like it, but I'm able to get directly into your dear Dimitri's head and salvage whatever memories he's lost. It's a useful trick I've learned from all my years of looking into the underground gate, leaping from world to world. That was how I even got here, after all."

So, it knew about the gate and its capabilities, then. That did change Felix’s understanding of things. But still, he would not let himself be deceived that easily.

"...And how do I know you won't be implanting him with false memories to suit your own cause," Felix said, his tone low, "whatever it may be?"

"Don't take me to be the same as that Professor of yours," the cat replied, seeming to take offense. "My only wish is to salvage this world. And what I need done in order to achieve that is for someone to help me to seal away the cursed relic that's infecting it. That someone can only be you, Felix Fraldarius. I don't need to change anything about Dimitri's memories as they are now, because it wouldn't do anything about the curse's effects. But if offering to bring him back would get you to help me, then I would gladly do that."

Oh. Felix understood where this was going, now.

It wasn't Dimitri that this cat was trying to manipulate, then. It was Felix.

At the end of it all, that was all he and Dimitri were to other people, or animals in this case: tools to be expended as a means to an end.

"I still can't trust you," Felix said, unyielding. Then he turned and started to walk away.

"You say that now, Felix Fraldarius," the cat called after him, "but rest assured – you _will_ come back to me and accept my terms eventually."

Felix stopped and looked back to glower into the cat's eyes. They glinted with conceited amusement as they stared back into his.

"It is only a matter of time."

~*~

"...Which brings me to my third condition," Claude said, holding up three fingers. "If you start noticing anything strange with him... If he's remembering things he's not normally supposed to, you have to inform me right away. If there's anything I'd be kidding about, it's definitely not this. I'll need to know if this ever happens."

Felix raised a brow. "And why would something like that happen at all?"

Claude frowned – a rare sight in and by itself. "Just trust me on this," he said, lowering his voice into a whisper. "Teach is planning on something with him. I haven't figured out what it is yet, but there's something… off about the way she's handling Dimitri's memories. It's why I'm going to this extent to help you at all."

Claude’s words sparked a fuse within him. "She's trying to use Dimitri?"

"That's what I want to find out," Claude replied.

He had been right.

It was nothing like the last time Felix had been allowed to go near and interact with Dimitri. No, Felix would've rather that multiple times over than whatever he was forced to deal with now.

Before – which was when Felix had just arrived, found Dimitri to be alive, and suggested to the Professor that perhaps being by Dimitri's side would stimulate the return of his old memories – Dimitri, as the Professor had warned, had cleanly forgotten everything. About the Sentinels and the kaiju. About his family and life before it had all been robbed from him in 1305. About Felix. About Felix's name, his hobbies, about all the time they had spent together in the timeline Felix had come from.

But even without those memories, even with a simulated personality, Dimitri had, in some way, still remained as Dimitri. A bit too overly polite, a bit too prim and proper, and sometimes a bit too naive for his own good – but still Dimitri. And Felix had so foolishly thought, then, that maybe he still had a chance. That maybe if he tried harder, reminded Dimitri of the time they had once shared more, then maybe his Dimitri could come back to him.

But that all ended when Dimitri's headaches recurred and he started forgetting everything all over again – a sign that his treatment had been failing, and it was not until his mind eventually collapsed that it was determined that the treatment needed to be started over in a new direction. It was for the very same reason that had made the Professor firm in keeping Felix away from Dimitri at all costs thereafter, to prevent Dimitri’s mind from turning into an enemy of itself once more.

Looking at Dimitri now, Felix had the sinking feeling that she had done more than just that.

Even without any memories of Felix, Dimitri had never once pushed Felix aside. But the Dimitri that he was speaking with now only had a look of fear in his eyes, of trepidation and horror whenever Felix was present.

"I apologise, Felix, but – I simply cannot keep doing this," Dimitri said, pale and aghast, going into their second week they had started bunking together in the same dormitory room. "I will speak with my cousin to see if alternative arrangements can be made while your room is being fixed. In the meantime, I – I beg of you, to please stay as far away from me as you can. Please."

Felix could do nothing except for what Dimitri requested of him, because how was he to say no when faced with a Dimitri who evidently didn't want anything to do with him? So he stopped speaking with Dimitri, stopped following after Dimitri's tracks and watching him from a corner, stopped pretending to know him – because Felix, in truth, no longer did.

Things only took a turn for the worse when Claude rejected Dimitri's request. He started jumping whenever Felix came into sight, as though he had just seen a ghost. Made some sort of excuse to avoid Felix whenever he could. And then, when it had been told to them that it would be months before the repairs on Felix's room could be done and they would have to be roommates until then, Dimitri showed his despair by turning to false, awkward smiles whenever he came across Felix, as though it were his way of coping with the fact that he could not change their current arrangements.

Then, there had been the nightmares. It didn’t help that Dimitri seemed to be having them on a regular basis, tossing and turning almost every single day since Felix had started staying together with him. It helped even less that Felix didn’t know what they were about, with Dimitri barely even able to stand his presence, let alone speak with him.

"This is all just a terrible mistake," he heard Dimitri mutter once under his breath, after what had sounded to be particularly bad dream, not knowing that Felix had still been awake to catch that. "Felix cannot stay around me. Why can't Claude see that?"

And Felix could only pull his covers over his face as he tried but failed to fall asleep. Dimitri's words rang over and over in his head, refusing to leave him be unlike the person himself had been doing.

The worst of it all was that Felix had no fucking clue why this was even happening.

"I can't rule out the possibility that Teach might've done something to his implanted memories," Claude had said, when Felix reported this finding to him. "She really doesn't want you going near him, after all." Which Felix had suspected as well, though it didn't make him feel any less shitty about the situation and still didn’t help in understanding what it was exactly about him that Dimitri had been trying so desperately to avoid.

"Maybe he's freaked out after hearing all the rumours about you stalking him," Sylvain suggested on another occasion, and Felix questioned why he had even bothered making amends with this idiot at all.

Annette had simply looked at him. Held onto his arm, gripped it tight, and smiled the best she could. "It'll be okay, Felix." And with rose-tinted cheeks she sung to him a song. A song about an exploding library and the aftermath that followed.

Felix couldn't help but smile back.

~*~

On the day Dimitri had collapsed and the course of his treatment had been decided, it had been Annette who found Felix not in the infirmary where Dimitri had been resting, but instead on the rooftop of school building, standing by his lonesome as he gazed listlessly through the grills that surrounded the edges.

At that time, he couldn't find it within himself to give any indication to acknowledge her presence. Only kept his eyes straight towards the sky, where the sun had begun to set over the horizon, where a mix of pink, orange and violet had been painted across the heavens, and he wondered, briefly, when it would be the next time he would be able to see it rain once again.

"Felix?" Annette called out.

He didn't give her any response. Simply kept staring.

"Um, I... I heard about what happened," she continued, hesitantly, tripping over her words. "With... With Dimitri, I mean. Gosh, Felix, I— I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how you must be feeling right now."

"...Why're _you_ apologising," Felix muttered. Still not looking at her. Looking at anywhere but her. "It's not like you had anything to do with it."

"Even still," Annette said. "I... I’ve been in the same class as him, so I saw how he's been like and thought he'd seemed different. But I had no idea it was anything like this, and... and you've been handling it all on your own."

"It's fine," Felix muttered. "I didn't tell you, after all."

"I should've still noticed, at least," Annette replied, her voice sounding strangled. "Then you wouldn't have had to deal with this all by yourself."

Felix sighed. It did nothing to relieve the load pressing against his chest. "Not like it would've changed anything."

"Don't say that," said Annette. "You never know unless we try, Felix. Now that there’s the two of us, we can maybe figure something out together."

All at once, Felix felt something snap and boil over within himself at those words. For the first time in his life, he turned and shot a glare at his only lifelong friend whom he had grown up together with, whom he had known for as long as he could remember. But even knowing that, he could not stop himself.

"Don't you think I haven't already tried?" he retorted. "That I haven't already done everything I can to stop this?"

Annette's eyes widened. "Felix..."

"Let me tell you, then. You're right." Felix inhaled sharply. "You're right. I didn't. The chance had been right in front of me. It had been _right in front of me_ , and I didn't take it. I could've taken it, Annette, but I didn't."

Not a day had gone by without Felix thinking that he could've saved Dimitri that day. Not a day had gone by without Felix thinking that he could've stopped Dimitri that day.

If only he had tried. If only he hadn't hesitated.

"I didn't." Felix exhaled through his nostrils, shakily. He turned away. "So now I'm just dealing with the consequences of my own actions. Mine alone, Annette. Not yours."

He heard Annette breathe, trying to keep it steady. Shift on her feet – fidgeting. Other than that, it was all silent. A stifling, crushing silence. The sound of utter, complete defeat, one that had been by his own hands.

"Then... What will you do now, Felix?" Annette asked, softly.

Felix didn't know the answer to that question. He didn't know if he even had one.

"Is there... Is there anything I can do to help?" she tried regardless.

Felix slowly shook his head. Annette made a quiet, choked sound.

"Okay."

Felix heard her take a step further away. Then another. Then another. Her feet scrubbed against the concrete, like sandpaper rubbing together.

Then it came to a stop.

"Um, Felix?" Annette said, sounding hoarse. "I... I know you might not want to hear this right now, but... Just know that whatever happens, I'm always on your side, okay? Whenever you need me, I'll— I'll be there for you. So please, don't... don't give up just yet. Not just on Dimitri, but on yourself, too."

Felix said nothing. Couldn't say anything.

Then she took her leave, leaving him alone on the rooftop once more. He glanced towards the sky, then turned towards the grills and smashed his hand against it.

~*~

"Your presence... " Dimitri said, sometime back. Sometime before Felix’s world came crashing down. His smile had been more dazzling than anything Felix had ever seen, and Felix’s heart swelled with an emotion he didn’t know how to describe. "Somehow, it's just so… warm and comforting, to me. I've never felt anything like it."

"Hah," Felix gave a light scoff, trying to ignore the heat rising to his cheeks. "You're just like a kid talking about his security blanket. How childish."

"Mine, indeed," Dimitri replied, nodding. Wrapping his arms around Felix's waist, pulling him close. "And I'm not about to let you go just yet."

Felix huffed. "Sap," he said.

Dimitri's smile widened. He started running his fingers through Felix's hair, letting out a blissful, yet remorseful, sigh. "I... I don't want to forget this," he murmured. "Forget you."

Felix's fingers twitched as his grip on the back of Dimitri's shirt tightened. "You won't," he said.

"Someday, I may have to," Dimitri replied.

"You won't," Felix repeated. "I won't let you."

Dimitri chuckled in spite of the topic at hand. "I wonder who is being the child, now."

"I'm being serious, Dimitri."

"And so am I," Dimitri said. His voice took on a heavier tone, and Felix was reminded once more of who Dimitri had truly been: an adolescent who had been forced into battle against the heralds of the apocalypse, and had, ultimately, been powerless to stop it. "My headaches are getting worse, Felix. And the kaiju will come here someday. It may not be now, it may not be tomorrow, but... that day _will_ come. And when it does, I must get in the Sentinel and fight. Regardless of what will become of me as a result of that."

Felix shoved his face into the front of Dimitri's chest and sighed into it. "I know that," he muttered. They had discussed this many times before, and each time the outcome had always been the same.

"So promise me, Felix." The words that Felix had expected came. "Promise me... that when the time comes, don't try to stop me. I want to do all I can to protect this city you call home. To protect the people important to you. To protect you." He paused. "I don't... I don't wish for this place to end up just as my homeland did."

"Dimitri..."

"Please," Dimitri whispered. "Let me go."

Felix bit his lip. "…Alright," he said, as he had always done before.

Dimitri took in a shuddering breath, then pressed his lips against the crown of Felix's head. "Thank you, Felix," he replied.

Felix tugged the back of Dimitri's shirt and waited for him to shift away before Felix lifted his head, and looked into Dimitri's eyes. He wasn’t done just yet. "On one condition."

A blink. "Oh?"

"You'll let me go with you."

Dimitri's jaw dropped. Felix would've laughed at this if not for the gravity of the discussion at hand. "Felix," he said.

"If you want to tell me to drop the idea because of all that bullshit about it being too dangerous you can stuff that up your ass because I'm not letting that change my mind," Felix replied.

Dimitri made a noise that sounded like a mix between a snort and an attempt to clear his throat. "Well, I... I don't see how I can make that possible, even if I wanted to. The Sentinel only has one cockpit."

Felix scoffed. "Idiot. Of course I don't mean piloting with you. I know I'm not compatible."

"Then..."

Felix averted his gaze. "I... I'll go to wherever you fight," he clarified. "So then, when it's all over... I'll still be there."

Dimitri was quiet, for a moment.

"You know I can't agree to that," he eventually murmured.

"Fine," Felix said. "I'll do it even if you don't."

"That's... not exactly playing fair," Dimitri mumbled.

"Who's the one being unfair here?" Felix unwrapped his arms to grip the front of Dimitri's shirt and scowled at him. "I won't stop you if you want to be an idiot in order to... to protect me or whatever it is. That's your problem, not mine. So don't you dare stop me from doing what I want, too." Felix swallowed. "I... There's something that I regard important to me as well, you know."

Dimitri's eyes widened. Felix held his gaze. And for the next few moments, they could only stare at one another, neither willing to break away nor to shatter the silence, as though it were a secret to be held sacred that they had shared between just the two of them.

And then, Dimitri laughed. He laughed.

"You know, I... I truly am glad to have met you, Felix," he said. "You know that, do you not?"

Felix couldn't help it. He snorted. "Really," he said dryly, giving Dimitri a bland look. "I couldn't tell."

"Oh?" Dimitri let out another light chuckle, leaning closer. "Well then, perhaps this might convince you otherwise..."

Shit, Felix thought, panicking. Wrong move. "No, wait you nitwit, that's not what I—"

He never ended up managing to finish his sentence.

~*~

The Professor had said they couldn't afford to lose him if they wanted a winning chance against the kaiju. That they needed all the Sentinel pilots they could find. So it hadn’t mattered to her the state Dimitri was in, so long as he could be kept alive and functional. And to that end, she had tampered with his memories, tried to repurpose him into something or someone he was not, and created the elaborate lie that it had been the only way to save him.

So now, Felix would respond to that in turn. To rise up to her, challenge her straight-on, with all the world’s oceans' worth of an emotion that a person like her couldn't possibly have fathomed. That Felix himself hadn't known he could've experienced, until Dimitri had stepped into his life.

He would not give up, no matter what obstacles he would have to face. Even if it meant becoming a mere tool himself. Even if it meant having to strike a deal with the devil.

This time, he would not lose him. Not ever again.

Felix looked at the bed across him, where Dimitri had been sleeping fitfully, then back down at the cat sprawled across his covers that had been peering intently at him.

"Fine," he said. "So where do I start?"

**Author's Note:**

> me, before writing this: it's just going to be based on megumi's prologue section of the game, how long can it be?  
> me, after writing this:
> 
> ~~~
> 
> If you're wondering whether the reason why I wrote this is because I wanted to have Felix making a deal with a talking cat you are absolutely right, it was. Plus with so many of the Eng VA cast sharing with FE3H's this AU just absolutely refused to leave my mind because every second of playing it my mind just kept screaming 'FE3H 13 Sentinels AU FE3H 13 Sentinels AU FE3H 13 Sentinels AU'
> 
> (Also the word 'Aegis' is thrown around practically everywhere in the game even in the title of the game itself so I just *had* to)
> 
> As you might've also gleamed there is...quite a far bit of plot that I didn't manage to go in-depth into, but I wanted this to focus mainly on Felix's relationship with Dimitri and his motivations for doing what he did, based off Megumi's story early-game. I would turn this into a multi-chaptered fic, but I sadly can't commit to that currently, so this is the best I can manage for the time being. I do have two bonus scenes for now but they are published separately because they don't flow well with this current oneshot, and one of them also has heavy late-game spoilers for 13 Sentinels which I don't want to accidentally spoil on if anybody is intending to play it. I might add onto that collection of bonus scenes in the future, but I don't have any concrete plans just yet.
> 
> Thank you for reading and hope you have enjoyed this fic :)


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